Dores’ Men’s Golf ready for SEC Championship

The #3-ranked Vanderbilt men’s golf team begins their championship season this Friday at the revamped SEC Championship at the Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons, Ga. The Commodores, who are ranked number one in the Southeastern Conference heading into the event, will tee it up at the par-70, 6,898-yard Seaside Course for the weekend.

This year’s SEC Championship format has been changed to more mirror the NCAA Championship’s stroke-match play tournament that has gained in popularity over the years. Fifty-four holes of stroke play will take place on Friday (36 holes) and Saturday (18 holes), with the top eight teams advancing to match play on Sunday. The quarterfinals and semifinals will take place on Sunday, with the championship match being played on Monday morning.

The Commodores, who will be paired with #2-seed Florida and #3-seed LSU, will tee off on Friday morning at 6:50 a.m. Central Time. The second 18 holes will be played immediately following the conclusion of the first round.

“I am excited for the championship part of our season to get started,” said Vanderbilt head coach Scott Limbaugh. “I know the guys are excited to get going as well. I love this tournament and this year it is as strong as our league has ever been. The new format with match play will be exciting and certainly help to prepare the teams for the rest of the season. The important things for us are to embrace our climb and understand what we have to do to be the best we can be. This week comes down to us being able to do the right things and to focus on us and what we can control. That’s why the climb is so important, each step along the way helps to prepare you for the bigger moments. It’s now time to have some fun and compete the way we know we can compete and to play with confidence and pride.”

Vanderbilt will send senior Matthias Schwab, junior Theo Humphrey, sophomores Will Gordon and Patrick Martin, and freshman John Augenstein to compete for the Commodores this weekend. All five of the Commodore starters are ranked inside the top 40 in the SEC individual rankings.

The Commodores are one of eight SEC teams ranked in the top 25 heading into this week’s festivities, with #6 Florida, #7 LSU, #16 Texas A&M, #19 Auburn, #23 Ole Miss, #24 Missouri, and #25 Georgia being the other teams.